If you've been around over the past couple of years, then chances are you've picked up on my love for Haus of Gloi products: the inspired scents and the great-quality textures always make me go back for more!

Now, I'll admit I completely missed their Autumn collection, as I've been trying to make a dent in my bodycare stash, but the Yule and Reverie releases for the holiday 2013 season, lured me in 100%. Again. Truth be told, I needed some body scrubs, and to stock up on some Snow Wolf Pumpkin Butter, but without realising it, my cart went way beyond that (not that I'm complaining, hey)! Complete haulage as follows:

The final installment in my Korres mini review series for A/W 2013-2014 will be today's post on the "Vintage Red" Collection. I deliberately left this one last: I couldn't think of a better time to talk about it than the holidays - I don't know about you, but I've always thought reds went hand in hand with Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve kisses! So, let's get down to business!

Things were quiet on the.. vanity front these days (a.k.a.: I spent most of my time relaxing and overeating, as you do), but, not without some festive glitz, I can assure you! Which, to me, this year meant two things: a) my red vintage tinsel jumper (grandma's closet, I kid you not), and b) the stunningRevlon By Marchesa Nail Art 3D Jewel Appliques in Jeweled Noir.

Up until recently, I believed that exfoliants could only exist in one of two categories: manual or chemical (and never the twain shall meet, so to speak). It had never occured to me that a scrub could be both - or, rather, I had never come across one before I saw the Sephora Express Body Scrub & Mask during one of my Sephora trips, and which I'll be reviewing for you today.

Accoring to the... beauty forecast for A/W 2013, the "no makeup" makeup look is one of this season's biggest trends, making nude and beige tones a definite must-try. This, was something that didn't go unnoticed by Korres's creative team, who recently released their "Romantic Nude" Collection, which I'll be reviewing for you today!

I truly can't find the words to properly introduce this giveaway to you guys, that's how intense my excitement is!!! It's about time I held a proper giveaway on here, and I figured that December 1st, which officially marks the start of the holiday season, was the ideal day to run it! And as corny as it may sound, I truly am grateful for each and every one of you that read this blog, regardless if you leave comments or not (do say hello, though, from time to time)! So, as a way of giving back to you, dear All The Vanity readers, one of you will get the chance to win these truly awesome prizes:

Happy December everyone! Can anyone believe that we're nearing the end of 2013? Because I sure can't! Regardless, we just put November behind us, so you know what that means: time to share with you my beauty favorites for the month!

By now, I think we all know that drugstore brands have a habit of releasing dupes of popular higher-end beauty products, and, undoubtedly, we love them for it. But what does a dupe make? That's what I'll be exploring today, putting up L'Oreal's Ideal Soft (Skin Perfection) Micellar Solution against the famous Bioderma Sensibio (Crealine) H2O one.

Classifying the weather here as gloomy would be an understatement: in fact it's been so dark and rainy lately, that yesterday I had to turn on the lights at 2:30 in the afternoon! And, that, to me, seemed like the perfect opportunity to test out the new Korres "Winter Gloom" Nail Colour collection for A/W 2013-14! Yes, the name of the collection fits the weather to a T, but make no mistake, there's nothing remotely miserable or depressing about these shades! Proof, of course, provided below:

The latest "tag" that's been making the rounds, is the "What's In My Shower" tag, and, since the lovely Irene from Blushing Loves tagged me to do it, I simply had to oblige!

Now, I have no clue if there are any rules to this tag, and if I were to be literal about it I'd only be showing you 3 or 4 products (hello tiny shower with no storage unit!), so I figured I'd also include some hair and body products that normally sit in the bathroom cupboard, to give you a complete idea of what my full showering routine looks like!

Among the many products that I try out each year, a certain number of them don't make it on the blog, and, in most cases that's not because they don't deserve the mention, but mainly because my fickle brain is already on to something new. Which is exactly what happened to my purchases from the Camomile cleansing range by The Body Shop, that was released here this past spring: I purchased the Waterproof Eye & Lip Make-Up Remover and the Sumptuous Cleansing Butter, but I never showed them the love they deserved! I am, however, using these products a little more regularly lately, so I thought it was time to properly review them!

I normally don't hold on to empty products, not even for blogging purposes (I'm more of a "use up & chuck away" kinda gal), but seeing as some of you requested more "empties" posts, I thought I'd reconsider! It is, after all, the best way to share my final thoughts about a product and let you all know if I plan to repurchase or not!

Far be it from me to analyze the importance of Vitamin C in one's skincare routine: a ton of skincare experts out there have already praised its many benefits, which include a brighter complexion, free radical elimination, and stimulation of collagen production. What the experts don't really say though, is just how hard the quest for a good Vitamin C serum can be, especially since we're dealing with an ingredient that needs to be researched quite a bit beforehand!

Apparently, my recent beauty haul, didn't exactly quench my thirst for new beauty stuffs! Truth be told, I did need some face masks and some hair products, but I couldn't say no to a little something extra (as you do when you don't pay super close attention to your spending habits, that is)!

So, here's the second round of my beauty haulage (I vow to slow down after this, after all the holidays aren't that far away and I reallly need to start saving for a dSLR):

As I'm sure many of you already know, All The Vanity has a presence on Facebook, in fact so far it's had two: a profile and a page. Unfortunately, managing both timelines is impossible for me at the moment, so I decided to simplify things a bit: I shortly plan to unpublish my Facebook page and only keep posting on my profile. And seing as some of you requested some more fashion & lifestyle action, I plan to incorporate that into my wall feed, without having to make a separate blog post on here!

So, makes sure to follow this link below and befriend me, if you aren't doing so already!

Being the nail polish hoarder that I am, I rarely get excited these days by new nail polish releases: I usually already own a similar enough shade, so I find it a lot more sensible to "shop my stash" and use up what I got. OPI's San Francisco collection, however, and especially its metallic shades, made me reconsider - I mean, seriously, who can resist some holo metallic goodness (I did mention I'm a hoarder, yes?)!

October flew by here on All the Vanity, and November didn't exactly greet me with the best intentions, as I'm fighting a hellish chest infection at the moment (I literally feel as though a huge hand is squeezing my tracheia), while Mr. "All the Vanity" is recovering from a sprained ankle. Suffice to say that trying out new beauty products wasn't exactly a top priority during the past month - so, what actually made it on my favorites' list can be narrowed down to this bare minimum:

Those of you that have read my Beauty Box reviews over the past few months, probably know that I'm a huge fan of Glowbox and that I rate it as the top subscription service in its category, an opinion which I still stand by for the most part. Unfortunately though, this month left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, and, if anything, I think their glow has grown a bit dimmer.

Seeing as many of you requested more haul posts on All the Vanity, I, naturally, had no other option but to oblige! Now, despite me trying to harness my beauty spending habits and shop my hefty stash more effectively, I did acquire a few bits & bobs recently, worthy of showing and telling!

The full list, which also doubles as a glimpse into future posts, is as follows:

At my recent pit-stop at Sephora for a quick body scrub/eyeshadow fix, I was greeted with a very pleasant surprise at the checkout: a little makeup palette to celebrate my birthday, which is this month! But, since my makeup collection is about to explode any day now (at least, some of my drawers are), I thought this palette deserved to go to a more loving home, so I'm giving you all a chance to win it!

Seeing as I'm still experimenting with skincare products, in an effort to finally find the best and most well-rounded skincare routine for my skintype, I decided to put the remaining two Korres face scrubs to the test! This means that today's post will be a review on their Pomegranate Cleansing Scrub and their Olive Stones Deep Cleansing Scrub (if you wish to read my reviews on their Wild Rose Exfoliating Cleanser and their Thyme Honey Cleansing Scrub, you can check my previous post here).

How is everyone this Sunday? I know I dread the beginning of the upcoming week, so I thought to myself "why not talk about something pretty and sparkly to cheer me up"? Naturally, there's no better way to do that than a jewellery post and this time, it's my favorite earrings that are taking the stage!

Now, I should say that I love wearing earrings (I have 3 pairs of lower lobe piercings to prove it), however

One of the tags that's been making the rounds lately in the beauty community is the "5 Product Makeup" tag and, in the rare occurrence that you're not familiar with it already, it basically suggests that're only allowed to use 5 makeup products for your whole makeup.

Now, for some people, this may seem reasonable (hats off to you!), but I'm not one of them:

Even though autumn has well and truly settled as I'm typing these lines (i.e. brrr), my nails are not quite ready to jump on the fall nail polish bandwagon: my greiges and vampy purples will simply have to wait a while longer to be worn. Fear not, however, as this surely doesn't equal unkempt or boring nails - it's just time to break the norms and try out something different!

September was a rather dull month on the beauty front: between a luurvely reaction to my newfound all-natural, yet high-tech skincare approach and the many days spent indoors stressing about... well, everything really, I can't say I have anything exciting to report.

So, what does one do when feeling uninspired? Make a wishlist, naturally!

I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said that Glowbox is the most hot "beauty-in-a-box" subscription service here in Greece at the moment: each month's box is carefully put together and it features a variety of great quality beauty products by well respected brands. Hence, the small... war that goes on at the beginning of each month: everyone wants to get their hands on this little box of beauty luxury before it sells out!

My first Glowbox, was for the month of June (their very first one), and I've been a loyal (and lucky) customer since then. So, with no exception, I ordered September's Glowbox as well, which arrived on my doorstep a mere few hours ago! The brand keeps mum about the contents of each box, so I didn't know what to expect, but they did promise "very precious" samples this time, so I was very happy to verify that with my own eyes!

Even though I haven't been out and about past sundown a whole lot lately, I thought I'd share with you the makeup look that I usually go for, when I do: a mix of cranberry, dark blue, pink and pale lilac. Yet another colorful look (some of you may remember my summery "Seashore Frosts" FOTD), but in a slightly different direction this time: if anything, the autumnal shades are slowly coming into play.

Now, in all fairness, I do not own the... creative rights for this look: I had seen it on model Karlie Kloss, while perusing the internet sometime ago, but as it turns out, I didn't save the original photo and no amount of going through google images, pinterest or tumblr was enough for me to find what I was looking for. Still, I hope I did it justice, from memory alone.

For the past few weeks I've been on a mission to completely overhaul my skincare routine, a task that has proved to be somewhat tricky: it's hard to stick to the stuff that you know work for you, while being on the lookout for something better, of possibly "holy grail" status - I mean, how many different products until a skin goes berserk?

In this state, therefore, of skincare madness, finding a product that immediately delivers, is more than a pleasant surprise! Cue Face Lift Face Mask by That's Better, a Glowbox offering from a couple months back. For those of you that have never heard of the brand, let me quickly say that it's a Greek skincare brand, that bases its products on açaí berry, a potent anti-oxidant.

If you follow the latest releases in the beauty world, you might have noticed that The Body Shop have really stepped up their game in the past few months: first came their Camomile cleansing range (future post to come), then the relaunch of the Dragonfruit Lip Butter as part of their Foundation Campaign, the new Colour Crush lipsticks, and as we're speaking, their most recent Honeymania bodycare range has reached their stores.

Today, I'll be reviewing the Dragonfruit Lip Butter, letting you all know how the Foundation campaign works, as well as the newest addition of my makeup collection, the Colour Crush lipstick in 240, Damson in Distress. Hopefully, lippie addicts out there will share my excitement!

Irene has been in it for the long haul and her blog always manages to stay fresh and on top of the latest beauty trends, doubling as a bit of a personal "Νemesis" to me, in the original sense of the word, both to my wishlist, which she often expands, knowingly or unknowingly, and to my blogging attitude, as she always finds the time and energy to do what she loves (girl, I don't know how you do it)! If you don't follow her already, then you should probably fix that, but, until you do, let's hear it for one of her recent bodycare choices: Dove's Almond Cream and Hibiscus range.

When it comes to Greek pharmacy skincare, the face scrubs and face masks from Korres are among the most popular products, and with good reason: they come in convenient, travel size-friendly 16ml tubes and usually cost no more than a few euros.

Now, I must admit, that even though their face masks never really manage to intrigue me enough, that hasn't been the case with their face scrubs: most often there's at least one of them in my bathroom cabinet. So, I figured, why not properly review all of them, deciding which one I like the most at the same time? :)

At the moment, there's three facial scrubs listed on their website: the Wild Rose Exfoliating Cleanser, the Thyme Honey Cleansing Scrub and the Pomegranate Cleansing Scrub, but I distinctly remember there being an Olive Stones Deep Cleansing Scrub as well, which might currently be discontinued. Today, I'll be reviewing the first of

I don't know about you, but the last days of August never fail to put me in an autumnal state of mind: I can't wait for the hot days or the mosquito-ridden nights to be finally over, so that I can fully focus on my goals for the new season. Or my fall wardrobe, for that matter.

If you're already up to date on the fashion trends for the upcoming season, then you know that tartan, leather and anything grunge-y are going to be huge this year - great news to my ears, since those trends are totally up my street and I can easily wear them, without overthinking possible outfits!

So, with that in mind, I had a little fun on polyvore last night, and below's what I ended up with (click the photo for details on each piece)!

A few new pieces, along with a few old ones, some well loved, like the ASOS Treacle boots, and some... not so much, like my Rebecca Minkoff Nikkis that I hardly wear! Knowing me, I'll add

Seing as Seashore Frosts was the one shade that stood out to you the most from my Maybelline Summer 2013 LE Color Tattoo post, I thought it would be a good idea to come back with a quick FOTD with it.

Turns out "quick" was a bit of a recipe for disaster in this case, and my rush to take advantage of some decent natural light ended up with me getting a little blush-happy! In any case, here's my attempt for a Seashore Frosts FOTD, as requested:

Duochromes, along with glitters are notoriously hard to photograph, especially if you're still working with an old point & shoot camera, but I'm hoping that the golden sheen of Seashore Frosts is still noticeable, especially in the areas where the light hits it directly.

Even before I began my beauty blogging endeavor, I remember reading rave reviews about Aquolina Pink Sugar, a popular, yet, hard to find perfume, that managed to reach cult status over the years.

And even though I kind of knew that this wasn't going to be my cup of tea, as most reviewers described it as a young and sweet scent (whereas I lean towards anything with a subtle masculine edge), curiosity got the best of me in the end - who am I to resist a cult classic after all?!

Pink Sugar is definitely a young and girly scent. Its top notes consist of

One of the many consequences of beauty blogging is hunting down collections that were never released in your country.

Case in point, the Maybelline Color Tattoo Limited Edition range for the Summer of 2013. Now, I'm not 100% sure just how limited edition these were, but I believe that only the U.S. got the full 8 shade range, while Canada a selected few (as for this side of the pond, I don't think these ever hit any European Maybelline stands).

So, after a visit on ebay (and yes, most sellers were charging extortionate prices for these), I ended up with these three:

10 Precious Pearl, 40 Seashore Frosts and 45 Lavish Lavender.

Now, I know that this range has received mostly negative reviews from bloggers and YT-ers, and, I think those were justified to a certain degree. By no means should you expect the pigmentation or the metallic reflection of the permanent shades, but if you're ok with a sheer wash of color, then you should be able to use these just fine. As for the longevity issue,

It's only natural for a stressed out beauty blogger to drown their sorrows in some beauty hauling, non? :)

Well, this time, I headed straight to The Body Shop, and, namely their skincare and bodycare section: the combination of pampering products and relaxing scents is just what the doctor ordered!

So, here's what I came out with:

1. Camomile Waterproof Eye & Lip Make-Up Remover. I believe this to be a new addition to the Camomile range, at least as far as I've seen. It's one of those dual phase makeup removers, but it's surprisingly not as oily as other similar products. I've yet to test it out properly though (let me know if you'd like a separate review or a post on eye makeup removers).

2. Shea Eau de Toilette. I do enjoy a good scent in a perfume version, especially in the eau de toilette formula (the body mists never last as long as I'd like them to). I opted for the Shea one, as it's warm, woody and musky, yet oddly refreshing at the same time. I suspect this one would work well as a unisex fragrance too.

3. Coconut Body Scrub. Now, I'm still working my way through my Haus of Gloi scrubs, but since I'm fake tanning a bit more frequently lately, I thought I'd stock up (any excuse, right?)! I'm particularly fond of this Coconut one, because its creamy texture doesn't leave a greasy residue on the skin, and it smells like coconut heaven!

4. Peppermint Smoothing Pumice Foot Scrub, and5. Peppermint Cooling Foot Lotion. I adore the Peppermint range and I'm a huge repeat customer over the years - these couple of products along with a foot file work wonders for my poor dry feet, not to mention they smell extremely refreshing!
PS for my Greek readers: The Body Shop Peppermint Foot range is currently at 30% off for a few more days, so if anyone wants to try it, now would be the time to do it! ;)

The scents alone from all of these beauty items make for some excellent spirit lifters - the haul, thus, is deemed a success already!

Where do you shop from when you're looking for some relaxing beauty products? Do you head for new makeup or skincare/bodycare?

You know me, I don't really stray away from my denim, regardless of the weather!

And one of my favorite pairs as of lately, has been this one from Sammydress.com: it's got a great dark wash, it fits surprisingly well and the fabric is on the sturdy side, which means it will last a lot more washes than a stretchier pair. Now, some of you may be reluctant to shop from a Chinese online retailer, and I understand that; my pair actually arrived with the rustiest zipper in the face of mankind, as well as an unpierced button hole, but the mega low prices may be something worth looking into (personally speaking, I'd set a specific budget that I'd be comfortable spending, just to be safe).

As most of you probably already know, Google will terminate their Google Reader service, starting July 1st, 2013. Which means, that, if you're among the ones that are using Google Reader as your blog reader of choice, you need to find another alternative asap.

Now, I've heard about a couple of other readers out there, but it seems that Bloglovin' is the most popular choice in the blogosphere. To be truthful, I quit Google Reader myself when I first found out about Bloglovin'. Granted, it has its limitations (for example, your dashboard saves blog posts for a maximum of two weeks' time), but it's also an easy reader, that actually ends up saving me a lot of time.

Each post comes with a title, a snippet of the post, as well as a photo, so I can easily see what the post is about - a huge time-saver! There's also a "Like" button, which allows me to save any post that I enjoyed and want to keep for future reference, in a separate folder. Lastly, it gives me the opportunity to find out about new blogs that might interest me, thanks to its categories' system (blogs are grouped under different categories of interest, such as Fashion, Fitness, Photography, etc).

If you wish to replace your Google Reader feed with Bloglovin', you just need to click this link:

Keeping up with the beauty subscription box trend, I thought I should give another contender a try, before I dismissed the whole thing (or, so I thought anyways).

And, having just heard about Glowbox and its higher-end orientation, I decided to give its June edition (their first ever, actually) a try:

Similar to the other beauty box subscription services, Glowbox offers a selection of 5 to 7 travel sized beauty items each month (with the occasional full sized item every now and then), based on the profile you've created when you signed up. I should say, at this point, that Glowbox is priced at €12, instead of the €10 price mark of the other boxes, but it's well worth it, and I'll explain why in a bit. But, first things first, the contents!

2. Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse, 30 ml. A well known dry oil, that I've already tried in the past and it's indeed excellent for multi-purpose use (I've even used it on my face and it does moisturise, without clogging up the skin or making it greasy). The 30 ml size is going to be ideal for my summer holidays!

3. Apivita Face Cream for Sensitive Skin with SPF50, 15 ml. Apivita is one of my favorite skincare brands at the moment (I adore their serums and their face masks), but I've yet to try their sunscreens. My initial thoughts is that SPF50 might not work super well with foundation, but, in any case, it'll be a great sunscreen for the beach!

4. Sephora nail polish in Curacao, 5 ml. I'm a fan of Sephora nail polishes, and this is a lovely summery blue shade. Let me quickly say that this is a full sized item.

5. Jane Iredale Just Kissed Lip & Cheek Stain in Forever Pink. This is a small sample, but will no doubt come in handy. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a shade that I'd wear and it's got a nice fruity scent to it.

6. Avon Mega Effects Mascara, 9 ml. I believe this is another full sized product, that Avon just released, and it comes with a revolutionary paint style brush. I'm all for new gadgets, if they work, so, I'll update you on this one sometime in the future.

Needless to say, I love every single item in my box, and I know I'll use everything. Sure, it is their first box, so it has to be a great one, but if they keep it up in a similar style (and there's no reason not to, especially since they have huge brands behind them), then I'll keep coming back for it.

In my eyes, we clearly have a winner so far: Glowbox ticks all my boxes (pun intended):✔ It features well known and respectable brands, some of which are also pharmacy brands and take pride in their natural formulas (very important to me, as I'm very picky when it comes to skincare).✔ Everything was more than decently sized!✔ Each month's subscription is available that same month (which means if I want it, I can have it in a matter of days)!✔ Their customer service is exemplary: one of the samples was missing from my box, but the company responded immediately and sent a replacement straight away (take note other beauty box companies, and at the very least check your emails, *cough cough*).✔ Lastly, everyone received pretty much the same items, with few deviations, depending on their account profiles. I'm adding this to the pro list, because I think it's important for these boxes to be equally fair, without some customers getting better or worse boxes than the rest.